A New Beginning
by Lex Sparrow
Summary: Picks up during 'Secrets and Lies'. While supporting their friends' has they hide their secret relationship two unlikely people start spending more time together.
1. Chapter 1

**A New Beginning**

**By: **Lexxie Sparrow

**Summery: **Picks up during 'Secrets and Lies'. While supporting their friends' has they hide their secret relationship two unlikely people start spending more time together. Watch as two people grow closer as they fight to stay together and overcome life's obstacals through the years.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Degrassi. I do own the series this story spawned from. Everything else belongs to it rightful owners.

**A/N:** Morning all! Okay so I wanted to get this up before I do more work on 'Faith and Love' because there will be a few elements in here that are going to show up over there. Anyways I hope you all enjoy.

**Chapter 1**

He was sitting at the table in the caf that he and his friends always sat at during lunch when they came to school. He was listening to his best friend tell him about what had happened with his ex-girlfriend. They had hooked up in the ravine the night before, unknown to his current girlfriend, and he had decided he wanted her back.

"She turned you down? You really rocked her world." he said laughing at his friend.

He noticed the other boy glaring at him. "It's not funny. She turned me down because I'm still with Ellie."

He stopped his laughing and sighed before taking off his black baseball cap and scratching his brunette hair. "Well make her think you're not with Ellie. I do it down in the ravine." he said as his attention was slowly dragged away from the conversation as two girls entered the cafeteria.

The raven haired beauty standing next to his friend's ex-girlfriend had caught his eye the first day he had stepped into the school after moving to Toronto. She was a year younger than him but that didn't mean anything.

There were only two things that kept him from making his move on her. One was his own girlfriend and the other was of all the rumors he had heard about her and the emo-kid his friend's girlfriend hung out with. Lately though they weren't the highlights in the Degrassi rumor mill so maybe this was his chance.

He noticed the girls looking around for a table to sit at and waved them over. "Hey Greenpiece, Santos!" he called to them.

The two girls in question looked over and saw the two guys. Both of their hearts started pounding in their chests but for different reasons. One because of what had taken place about twelve hours before and the other because the person they thought to be unattainable was now wanting her to come sit with him and his friend without his girlfriend around.

She saw the other boy shaking his head and whispering something to him. She looked over at the blonde beside her and saw her wide eyes before shrugging and walked over to the table with the two boys.

"What do you want Jay?" Emma asked sitting down next to Sean as Manny took the chair next to Jay.

Jay shrugged turning his eyes away from Manny. "Thought you two ladies would like some company." he said as Sean glared at him slightly once again.

"Thanks Jay." Manny said making Jay smile slightly. They all sat around the table slowly making conversation with each other.

Jay grinned mentally when Manny laughed at one of his jokes and he wrapped an arm around the back of her chair. "So ladies there's a party tonight in Bennett Park. You guys want to come?" he asked hoping at least the girl beside him would say yes.

Manny looked over at Emma with a raised eyebrow wondering what was going on. Normally Jay never spoke to either of them and here he was inviting them to hang out. "Sure I guess. What time do you want us there?" she asked missing her best friend frantically shaking her head no.

Jay smirked at her. "Come around ten. That's when it starts getting good."

Manny smiled shyly at him as she heard Emma say something about needing help with something and furrowed her brow. "Yea that thing. Let's go." she said standing up. "Bye guys!" she called as they walked away from the table.

Jay smirked at Sean happily as he stole a fry from his plate as he was once again on the receiving end of his best friend's glare.

"Okay what was that about?" Manny asked dragging Emma into the girl's washroom. "Why is Jason Hogart inviting us to a party? Better yet why is Jay even talking to us?" Not that she minded but it was weird. She saw her friend look down guiltily.

Manny's heart stopped for a second. "You didn't do anything with Jay did you?" she asked worried and hoped she said no.

"Not Jay." Manny breathed a small sigh of relief at that.

"Then who..." she said before her eyes widened as she realized who it was. "Sean?! Sean Cameron?! Em! He has a girlfriend. One that he loves and lives with. You know what happened when I got involved with Craig." Manny yelled praying her friend hadn't done anything that stupid.

She had seen first hand what happened when you got involved with a guy that already had a girlfriend and she didn't ever want to see it happen to her best friend.

"He's messed up right now Manny. Worse than I was." At that Manny felt sorry for Sean and even Ellie as she remembered what her and Emma's parents had gone through to bring her out of her depression. "We were talking and it just happened."

Manny sighed shaking her head. "Well you're not going to keep seeing him are you?" she asked.

"Of course not." Manny knew she was lying and prayed Emma knew what she was getting herself into. She'd sit back and watch. If she got to spend more time with Jay though through all of this, she thought, it wouldn't be too bad.

**TBC...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Later that night the two girls were at Emma's getting ready to go to the ravine. Manny had changed at least three times. She didn't understand why she was so nervous. After all it was only Jay.

_Yea ONLY Jay. Only the guy you haven't been able to stop thinking about for almost a year,_ she thought to herself before shaking that thought off. That didn't matter. Jay had a girlfriend and she had already been down that route once. She'd never make that mistake again.

She looked into the mirror and put the last touches on her lip gloss. _If it doesn't matter why are you getting all dressed up? _That little voice in her head really needed to be quiet.

She put the cap back on the lip gloss and turned to see Emma still sitting there on her bed. "Em what are you doing? We have to get going if we want to meet them." she told her.

"I don't want to go Manny. You go ahead and tell Sean I wasn't feeling good or something." she told Manny flipping through a magazine.

Manny rolled her eyes. "So you can sleep with the guy but not hang out around him? Come on Em. It'll be fun and you could use so of that. Besides it'll give you a chance to talk to Sean without Ellie around."

"Manny please." Manny shook her head and pulled her up off the bed.

"No we are going to the ravine and we are going to have a good time." Manny told her going over to her closet and picking out something for her to wear. "Now go get dressed." she said shooing her into the bathroom.

She sat down on Emma's bed and sighed not knowing what tonight would bring but wanting to prepare herself.

"Why did you have to invite them?" Sean asked Jay as they were getting the bon fire started for the night.

Jay shrugged not wanting to tell him his reasoning. "Why are you complaining? Aren't you wanting to be with Greenpiece?" he asked him raising an eyebrow.

"I'm with Ellie. Besides she turned me down remember." Sean told him sadly.

Jay shook his head. "Whatever man. Just make up your mind. Meanwhile I'll be off with Ms. Santos." he said smirking.

Sean looked over at him. "Watch what you do with her man." he warned him. "The last guy she was with screwed her over so whatever you want with her take it easy." he said before going over to the cooler to get something to drink.

Jay put another log on the fire as what Sean said played back in his mind. His normal tricks wouldn't work on Manny. _Besides,_ he thought, _she deserves better than someone like that. She deserves someone that'll treat her right._

He laughed the thought away. Jay Hogart never thought that way about anything. Besides this was just another girl, just another notch in his belt, just another stain in the carpet in the broken down van.

Jay nodded to himself before going over to grab a beer before the girls showed up.

A couple drinks later the two boys were over by the bon fire talking and joking around when Jay looked up and his breath left his body.

Walking into the woods was the object of his lust and affection. He had seen her last year as she went from the innocent little girl into the beautiful woman she was now but never had she looked better than she did in that moment.

"Hey guys." she said as he regained his composure.

"Hey." the blond next to her whispered looking at Sean next to him. Jay rolled his eyes at her slightly before grinning and wrapped an arm around Manny's shoulders like he had earlier in the caf.

"So could I get you two gorgeous ladies something to drink?" he asked. Manny nodded slightly and Emma reluctantly agreed. "You want to come with me?" he asked Manny and she followed him over to the cooler by his car.

"Is this what you do every night?" she asked sitting on the hood of the orange civic as he grabbed a bottle of beer for himself and a couple sodas for the girls.

Jay shrugged. "Most nights. Don't really have anything better to do." he said popping the top off of his beer. "Besides don't you do this every night?"

Manny looked out at the fire and shook her head. "I used to but some stuff happened and I haven't really been in the mood to party for a while."

"Why'd you come tonight then?" he asked her taking a drink.

"You invited me." she said smiling slightly at him and he felt his heart skip a beat. "Besides might do some good to get away from everything for a little while." she said looking back over to where they had left their friends. She watched as they kissed and was about to interrupt when Jay stopped her.

"They're happy right now, Santos. Don't mess that up for them." he told her before smirking. "Besides it gives us a little more time to get to know each other better." he said looking her over.

Manny chuckled slightly and leaned up to whisper in his ear. "In your dreams Hogart." she said her breath blowing slightly in his ear before walking off.

Jay groaned before adjusting himself before gearing up to go play nice with the two girls. Maybe if he was lucky it wouldn't be just his dreams that were interrupted that night.

**TBC...**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/n: My muse decided that since Jay was playing nice in the other three stories that he should be able to act like himself this one so I had to up the rating. Enjoy the new chapter!**

**Chapter 3**

A couple hours and beers later someone had cranked the stereo in their car. Manny drug Jay away from the picnic table where they had been talking to Sean and Emma to go dance and give those two some privacy.

"Come on Jay! I love this song." she said grabbing his hand and started to move her body to the beat of the music.

Jay put his hand on her waist and slowly started to move with her. Manny turned around and slowly started to grind back against Jay who eyes almost rolled back into his head from the sensations she was causing.

"So this is what you do every night?" she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Uh huh." he groaned wishing she would stop but prayed she never would.

He pulled her back towards his body do she could feel what she was doing to him. Manny smirked and started to grind against him even harder.

Jay's breathing started to get ragged. "I need a drink." he whispered huskily in her ear as he back away and left her standing there.

Manny pouted before going back over to the picnic table where Emma was as Sean had went over to the cooler.

Sean was standing next to the cooler when Jay came over and grabbed a beer and held the bottle to the back of his neck. "What's wrong with you?" Sean asked him.

Jay glared at him. "Dude did you see the way she was moving? Damn!" he said trying to cool off.

Sean was about to respond when the two girls came over to them. "Hey we're gonna take off." Emma said kissing Sean's cheek.

"Bye Jay." Manny said smirking at him before the two of them walked off into the night.

"You can find your own way home right?" Jay asked Sean as they watched the two girls. Sean nodded. "Good I'm gonna go find Alex." he muttered before leaving his best friend standing in the park as he got into his civic and sped off into the night.

He drove to his apartment to see if Alex had shown up there yet. Normally every night at some point Alex would come to his apartment and crawl into his bed. He parked his car in the garage and headed up to his place.

He unlocked his front door and headed into his bedroom where he saw the girl he was looking for in his bed. He smirked as he undressed himself and crawled into bed next to her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and started placing kisses along her neck.

"Hey babe." he whispered holding her close to him. "You get started without me?"

"You smell like smoke and beer. Where were you?" Alex asked rolling onto her back.

"Elle wanted me to take Sean out for the night." he muttered running a hand over her body as he continued what he was doing.

"Good." she moaned as she brought a hand up to pull his head down for a kiss. Things quickly got heated between the two of them and Jay found himself right where he wanted to be.

As he started thrusting into her his mind started to drift off to the girl he had been dancing with not too long ago. He wondered how she would feel underneath him, how it would feel to be inside her. He had heard she had only been with one guy before, that Manning kid.

Those thoughts caused him to speed up. He could almost see her, feel her surrounding him, the sounds Alex was making underneath him helped to spur his fantasy on farther. He quickly finished off and rolled off of Alex.

She curled up next to him. "What got into you tonight?" she asked him laying her head on his chest.

Jay started up at his ceiling as he wrapped an arm around her. "Just thinking of you babe. Like always." he said praying she believed him. There was no way he could tell her.

Emma and Manny got back to the house and quietly snuck back in through the window. They quickly got ready for bed making sure to be as quiet as possible so Emma's parents wouldn't suspect anything.

"So what was with you and Jay tonight?" Emma asked as they got into their sides over her bed.

"Nothing." Manny told her quickly and shrugged. "He seemed bored and neither of us wanted to watch you and Sean make out so we talked and danced that's all." she said laying her head on the pillow.

"Please be careful, Manny." Emma said turning off the light. "Jay's not like Craig."

"You've got nothing to worry about with me and him, Em." Manny whispered. "But please be careful with Sean."

Emma yawned. "Yea. Night Manny."

"Night Em." she whispered and stared up at the dark ceiling of the basement. There was no way she could tell her. Besides Jay didn't like her like that, he just put up with her for Sean's sake. Right?

**TBC..**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

About a week after the first outing to the ravine with the boys it had become a regular thing for Manny to come with Emma to meet up with Sean. Those two normally stayed together all night leaving her to hang out with Jay until it was time to leave.

The two of them spent most of the time sitting on one of the picnic tables talking about random stuff that had happened during school. Sometimes their conversations delved a little deeper and they found themselves talking about their lives.

She sat there and listened the night he wanted to talk about his mother that had passed away when he was young. She even listened when he talked about his father's latest wedding and how he had made a huge scene at the wedding a few months back, it was the same day he finally moved into his own apartment.

In return he listened as she told him about her troubles at home with her father and her side of some of what happened the year before. She had even told him about the abortion, a topic she never wanted to discuss with anyone much less an almost complete stranger.

It was strange how the guy that was labeled the bad ass of the whole school could make her feel comfortable enough around him to talk about any of that.

It was those thoughts that ocuppied most of Jay's mind the most over the past week. The time that he didn't spend with the two reunitied love birds and Manny, he was stuck home alone as Alex hardly ever came anymore unless something happened at her house, most of her time was spent with the blond bitch and all her minions as Jay thought of them.

Jay yawned as he picked himself up of the couch one afternoon to go into the small kitchen in his apartment to find something to drink. It was the first afternoon that Sean wasn't wanting him to tag along down to the ravine or somewhere else with his little mistress as Ellie had forced him into a double date with a couple of her friends and Jay was bored.

As he was looking through the small refridgerator he heard his cell phone ring in the other room on the small thrift store coffee table he had found. He grabbed a beer and went to see who was calling him.

He picked it up to look at the caller id but all it showed was a number not a name. "Hello?" he answered after the fifth ring.

"Hey Jay. It's me." he heard the person say over the phone. "I know this may sound strange but I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out?"

His eyes slightly widened and he smirked even though she couldn't see it. "You want to hang out with me in the ravine all by yourself? I'm flattered dimples." he said jokingly. "But the boy is out with his girlfriend so the girl is probably going to be occupying your time until he's free."

"I didn't mean hang out with Sean and Em. I meant just the two of us and _not_ the ravine." she said sounding slightly cautious. "If your not doing anything else, that is?"

Jay took a look around his sparce apartment. "Where do you want to go?" he asked grabbing both his wallet and his keys.

"I don't know. What about the Dot?" Manny asked him. Jay agreed that he would meet her there in about twenty minutes. He locked the door to the apartment and went down to his civic. It would only take him ten minutes to get there in his baby.

He arrived just as he thought ten minutes before he was supposed to meet Manny. He looked around to make sure Spinner wasn't working and that no one was around that would tell Alex about him spending time with her.

He found a secluded table away from everyone else in the restaurant. He knew that they were just becoming friends but it didn't hurt to try to romance her when they were together. Besides he figured that after everything she had been through she deserved it.

Even if most nights he wound up having to find another form of comfort after they seperated as most of the girls knew he was with Alex and the others thought he was with Manny. If Alex never showed up he wound up getting cozy with a bottle of massage oil and his right hand.

One of the waitresses came over and he ordered something to drink and sat there waiting for her to show up. He looked at the time on his phone and didn't see her walk through the door.

Manny spotted him sitting in the back of the Dot looking at his cell phone and took a deep breath. She was convinced that calling him up was a stupid move. So what if they spent their nights talking while their two best friends worked on getting their relationship back to how it used to be.

She was about to go back out the door just as silently as she came in until he lifted his head up and spotted her. She noticed the small half smile, half smirk thing she had caught him doing and exhaled before walking over to the table.

"Hey. You already order without me?" she asked smiling as she sat down across from him.

Jay shook his head. "No I haven't even been here that long." he told her as one of the waitresses came over.

"Hey what can I get for you today?" she asked staring over at Jay.

"Just a burger for me and whatever she wants." he said motioning towards Manny.

Manny gave the waitress her order and she went back to give it to the cook. "You don't have to pay for mine, Jay. I can get it." she told him.

Jay just waved her off. "My treat. Be lucky I don't do that very often." he said causing her to chuckle. "So where were you last night? Greenpiece came to see Sean but you didn't come with her."

"Mom wanted me to stay home last night. Says I've been spending too much time at Emma's." she told them as the waitress brought Jay his drink he ordered before Manny arivive along with hers.

"How have things been over there lately with your dad and all?" he asked her as he took a drink from his cup.

Manny sighed. "Same as always." she complained. "He starting to get worried about college already and I'm not really sure if I want to go or not. I've still got two years to make up my mind you know." she told him as the waitress sat their food down in front of them.

"I could talk to him for you if you want. Try to get him off your back." he told her as he stole a french fry off of her plate. Manny glared at him slightly and shook her head.

"No that would probably make it worse." she told him. They stayed there talking and joking around with each other they barely noticed the hours pass on by. Eventually Jay went to pay the bill and they decided to go for a walk as neither of them had anything better to do.

They walked through the park as the sun started to set and Manny looked at her watch to see what time it was. "Wow!" she said seeing that it was almost nine o'clock. "I should probably get back home." she told him not really ready to leave yet.

Jay motioned to his car. "I could drive you." he offered so they wouldn't have to seperate just yet. She agreed and this time he drove a safe speed as she gave him directions to her parents' apartment.

When they arrived Jay got out of the car to walk her upstairs. 'You don't know what kind of creeps are out right now' had been his explanation. He walked her to her door and told her goodnight.

"Jay!" she called to him as he was walking back down the hall causing him to turn around. "You know this wasn't a date right? Because me and you can't happen." she told him.

Jay felt a mysterious pain in his chest that he had never felt before as she said those words. "Yea I know. Why screw up a good thing right?" he chuckled slightly. "See ya Santos." he said before turning around and walking down the hallway.

Manny sighed as she put a hand on the doorknob and went inside. She greeted her parents before going to her room and laying down on her bed. She knew what she told Jay outside was the truth, that they couldn't be anything else for now, because she wasn't ready for that yet. So why did she have this feeling she just made a huge mistake?

**TBC...**


End file.
